Lauriana Mae stopped by the Good*Fella Radio show to chop it up with Kymmi Cee and the rest of the crew. As an artist signed to Atlantic Records, she recently released her EP City of Diamonds which has been making tons of waves all over the internet. During the interview, Lauriana shared some of her major influences such as Billy Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, and Billy Joel. However, had it not been for her parents, she would have never been put on to such greats.

“It’s crazy because when I was younger, my Mom used to play the oldies station, and you know, put me on to certain things, and be like ‘If you learn to sing this, I’ll buy you McDonald’s for dinner’, so I would just sing anything she wanted because I loved McDonald’s.”

Lauriana Mae’s love of Mickey D’s isn’t the only thing that influenced her to sing. Growing up, she was also heavily inspired by the church setting, a place where she found her voice and learned to let go and just sing.

“In church you’re letting your voice go and you’re singing and no one’s judging you. They’re just raising their hands and they’re hyped, and everyone’s there to celebrate love.”

Singing and celebrating love has also taught Lauriana Mae how to sing about and appreciate pain, which she does on her track “This Pain” featuring B.o.B. She says:

“That’s real life. Everything on the EP is real life. We love and we’re blessed and we celebrate love, but we also get hurt in real life and, you know, we get our hearts broken; and everything on the EP is just truth.”